cabo san lucas, mexico.

pete and i jetted off to mexico for a week at the end of january.  we stayed in cabo san lucas at the pueblo bonito rosé resort. we had a lot of fun in the sunnnn. we'd hang by the beach all day and have endless coronas con limón y margaritas y chips y guac. too many of all those things, actually. but we enjoyed ourselves. 

here are a bunch of photos from our week.  all from my iphone 6. and some silly bonus photos from our crappy disposable waterproof camera.

many thanks to my parentals for coordinating our week at pueblo bonito via their timeshare :)

we were besties with all the servers. our favs: ricardo, davíd, javier, armando, jerry, y hector. thanks for tromping through the sand to deliver us so many delightful eats and drinks everyday, fellas :)

pete and i are HUGE fans of locals sandals. best drug store sandals in the world haha. you get them in hawaii, though. both times we've gone to hawaii together, we buy em all up! they are freakishly comfortable once you wear them in; we've walked miles and miles in these babies. i love em.

ooooooo our heart swan towels looked all romantiq when the sun came up. actually, i took a towel folding class by the pool one morning, haha. because, why not? i learned how to make elephants, swans, turtles, and a basket! 

vacation shirt pete, just doin what he do.

yayayayy for vacations in january, the monday of months.

and some really blurry underwater camera photos: 

(we bought the camera the day after we had gone snorkeling.....why?! i dont know. the day we snorkeled, it was with two big sea lions and the hugest school of fish i ever did see! i thought it was a bigass boulder, but it was a humongous school of fish. sea lions were swimming by us and swimming through the fish and playing around. it was so cute. then i swam through a patch of tiny jelly fish that i didn't even see at all, and my skin started burning all over.  i had a bunch of stings on my arm and leg that turned into rashes. nobody peed on me, if you were wondering. i just let it do its thing and it was fine the next day. we saw a bunch of pretty colored fishes, too, by the way!)

gracias for the sunshine & fun times, mexico! that gorgeous turquoise water was just what our souls needed in the depths of this grey seattle winter!  

qp 

turkey & gouda grilled cheese with bacon jalapeño brussels.

ooooh hay ho i made this dinner a super long time ago. like 5 months ago on a late summer/early fall's eve.  but it is a cozy meal i could eat on repeat.

its not reeeaaallyyy a recipe per se, but i think of it as a little extra special grilled cheese sandwich.

i think we made this on a weeknight at the end of summer when football season had started. in my mind, football means fall which means grilled cheese and soup (and so many other delicious comforting things).  fast forward to now, i'm finally getting around to sharing this dinner and football season is basically over.  in other words, grilled cheese and soup are desirable at all times.

i have a guest cook here, today. pete! i think he could go into hand modeling. lookit them paws! 

brussels + bacon + jalapeño.  mmhmm.

the grilled turkey meat pic is gross, but i had to show the manner in which we crispified the meat.

cheesy, mustardy, grilled goodness dunked into some hot, peppery, creamy tomato soup goodness with a bite here and there of crispy, slightly spicy, earthy & flavorful bacon brussely goodness.

so much goooooodness.

Turkey & Gouda Grilled Cheese with Bacon Jalapeño Brussels

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. brussels sprouts
• 1 cup water
• 4-6 slices of peppered bacon, cooked
• 1 large jalapeño, seeded and chopped
• 4 slices of bread
• 4 oz. gouda cheese
• 2 TB brown mustard
• 4-8 slices deli turkey
• 4 TB. butter
• olive oil
• tomato soup of your liking

Instructions-

Heat a large pan or skillet to medium heat.  Add the brussels sprouts and water.  Cover and let the brussels steam through for about 10 minutes. Remove the cover and continue to heat the brussels until the water is evaporated/absorbed into the brussels sprouts. Remove from heat. Cut the brussels in half.

Cook the bacon in a pan until tender, not too crisp. Place the cooked bacon between two paper towels to remove excess grease. Chop the bacon into bits.

Cut the jalapeño open and remove the seeds.  Chop. Add the halved brussels, chopped bacon, and chopped jalapeños back into the skillet on medium-low heat and fold it all together. Drizzle a bit of olive oil and let the brussels brown, turning every few minutes until browned to your liking.

Heat the desired amount of tomato soup in a sauce pan on medium-low heat.  Add black pepper.

In a small pan, heat just a teaspoon of olive oil.  Spread the turkey slices in the pan and let them brown on all sides, flipping every couple of minutes.

Heat a large pan to medium heat.  Butter one side of 4 pieces of bread, and spread 1 TB of brown mustard to the opposite side .  Place 2 slices of bread butter side down in the hot pan. Place a slice of gouda cheese and 2-4 slices of browned deli turkey on each piece of bread. Top each sandwich with another slice of bread, butter side facing up. Cover and let the cheese melt as the bread gets grilled & browned on the bottom. After about 3 minutes, turn each sandwich and let it brown on the opposite side for another 3 minutes.  If desired, broil an additional slice of gouda cheese on the top of the sandwiches after grilling.

Serve the sandwich cut in half with a cup of tomato soup and a serving of the bacon brussels. With a beer! On a Thursday! or whenever.

cozy times.

qp